It was hoped that Nkwinti’s delight at Agri SA’s land reform proposal last year had put the 50/50 proposal to rest, and its resurrection is baffling. Nkwinti’s task team found a land ceiling policy to be unviable. Other countries have tried it, and the desired results of transforming local agricultural industries, reducing rural poverty and ensuring food security were not achieved (see pg 15 of news).
The land reform debate is exhausting – we’re going around in circles. Page through the archives of Farmer’s Weekly and the same arguments and counter-arguments come up again and again. Reasons for the failure of land reform projects have been done to death. When facts point to the likely cause of failure, why look for radical solutions without first addressing the underlying problems – problems which will be inherited by the new policy, thus ensuring its failure?
Why does the ANC cling to ideas with no proven chance of success when workable solutions are on the table? Is land reform not intended to transform the agricultural industry in such a way that its beneficiaries become self-sustaining commercial farmers, processors and businessmen?
This outcome is dependent on aid from commercial farmers. Without them, the entire agricultural and food-value chain would collapse.
Read: Has the ANC reached its ceiling?
Cyril Xaba, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, seems to understand this. His vision of a coordinated approach to agriculture and land reform in his province has seen him reach out to commercial farmers.
That he was surprised at commercial agriculture’s positive feedback points to the lack of communication between organised agriculture and government officials below ministerial level, and also within government itself.
If communication channels in government were open at all levels, it would have known about organised agriculture’s willingness to work with it. It would have known about the successful transformation projects being run by the commercial sector, and the research commissioned by Nkwinti showing that land ceilings have not been successful elsewhere in the world.
Better communication and better relations might have seen an entirely different outcome at the lekgotla. Let’s hope Xaba’s good intentions don’t get diluted by political pressure and that both commercial and emerging agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal prosper.
